Podcar-News

Saturday, September 26, 2015

METRO DYSFUNCTION

BRT in twenty years -- or maybe ten if we get funds from DC.

Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) across the USA
propose LRT or BRT for long-term infrastructure development. Heavy rail is too
expensive and fits only in exceptional places like Manhattan and Honolulu.
Elsewhere in areas of more modest size and easier geography -- Albany,
Northwest Arkansas, Austin to start and all the way through Zanesville --
BRT/LRT plans are out there in irrelevant
isolation.

MPOs are searching for relief in all the wrong places.

“It just won’t do it as an answer,” argues Fred Payne of
Greenville SC. He seeks relief from growing highway congestion -- with all the
accidents, pollution, noise and avoidable health problems of who seldom
walk. We need to encourage pedestrian
and cycling, but better mobility options are needed.

Why don’t MPOs produce creative solutions? Well, truth is
that MPOs across the US should be really called MCOs.
They aren’t set up to produce creative plans for the future. Their primary
function is to coordinate the needs and desires
of dozens of governments into a coherent whole. They really are metropolitan
coordinating organizations.

A Norfolk Nightmare

The stupidity of MPO dysfunction is coming into focus in southeast Virginia - the Hampton region
that includes Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach sprawled around waterfronts with historic military importance. Norfolk
spent about $300 million on a 12km (7mi) LRT dubbed The Tide that opened in 2011. An abandoned
railroad now owned by Virginia Beach runs straight and level some 25km through a
sparsely developed corridor that ends in the dense coastal stretch of beach
hotels and resort properties that is Virginia Beach.

Does a fast, reliable transit connection make sense? Do VB
residents and visitors want to mix with Norfolk types? Do they want to go to
Norfolk? Do people in Norfolk want easier access to VB? One option is an extension of Norfolk’s LRT. This had gelled into a plan to extend it
some 5km (3.1mi) to a growing development hub known as Town Center. Cost is
estimated about $250 million.

At-grade LRT can run into accidents.

Why don’t they let PRT
promisers come in to establish a PPP to build a whole self-financing network in
return for long-term income streams from fares, ads and development around
stations?

For now, two VB City Councilors recently voted against spending
Virginia DOT funds to buy LRT vehicles (somehow jointly with Minneapolis: details
are not clear). The price for four is reportedly $17.2 million! How gilded can
a $4.3 million vehicle be? Former VB Treasurer John Atkinson ran ads against
these LRT absurdities and has set up a fund to
fight them.